Just because it was the first to exist doesn't mean it was the most important. Doom's multiplayer was pretty much a dud, Quake is the game that kickstarted the genre.
So you're saying that the big rich companies should get away with paying less taxes? Because they employ 200 people? For 200 employees, that works out to paying each one 15k per year. With ninety million dollars, you could probably create some sort of business or facility that employs more people than that, and tell Google to fuck off.
Well, I don't think the ratings are a myth. Or the revenues. Or the attendances. Granted a lot of people watch the Superbowl for the commercials, but a lot of people watch all the other NFL games as well. And those college games with 100k+ people in the stadium...
That's Google's problem. Maybe they shouldn't just allow all and sundry to upload content, then put it up for public download without vetting it. If I had a website and allowed people to upload random pictures, and it ended up full of child porn, you can bet the police would be round my house.
Personally I don't see how a grainy five minutes clip of a TV show is going to damage it. If it's any good it'll make more people watch it, and if it's bad then it'll save people wasting their time watching it. It's bittorrent and newsgroups that is the real problem.
The problem is, that was only funny the first time they did it, not the next fifty. I'm convinced that they only made Family Guy series 4+ because they were told to, rather than because they had any ideas.
Similarly, the Simpsons has outstayed its welcome by around a decade. I don't think Futurama should come back, there's a lot to be said for ending a show when it's still good.
If road pricing was in place and I knew that driving on a motorway between 7-9am would cost me more than driving outside of that time I would see if I could change my travel plans.
How do you change your travel plans? If you work a shift that starts at 8am, you can't decide to get there for 6am or 10am. If they charge between 7-9am, and everyone decides to come in for 10am, then the congestion is just moved later!
If you think this is about anything other than another tax, then you're naive. I drive to work on a route with no traffic, but you can bet I'll be charged!
Eventually we'll have a situation where many people can't afford to go to work at all, but then this government is all about punishing people for working and rewarded layabout scroungers.
You bid $100 for a product and bought it for $95. Some people think that the maximum bid is merely theoretical. If you only want to pay $50 then only bid $50.
You would have no sympathy for the seller if you bought it for the minimum, so why should he have sympathy for you buying it at the maximum?
They know that with a flick of a button they can change to a million other songs, or visit a million other videos on YouTube, and I bet they're frustrated that they only get 1000 channels on their satellite TV.
They also have short attention spans. They may like watching a youtube video that loads immediately, but will they like navigating bittorrent search sites, then waiting hours/days for it to download, only to find it's corrupt or not what they were looking for?
Internet bandwidth will have to massively improve before it becomes a viable replacement for TV, so shows can be viewed instantly with no buffering, ever. Even youtube's grainy videos have to buffer, even when you're on a fast connection, so what chance do PAL-quality videos have?
You also need a reliable way of hooking your TV up to the Internet. And you also need reliable Internet. Sometimes I can't connect to my ISP, especially during busy times. I'd hate to be trying to tune into a big game or something only to find I can't get on. TV doesn't have this problem.
What do you think a youtube clip looks like scaled up to 50"? That's about as high quality as it can get with a decent internet connection without having to 'buffer'.
Unless every time you change channels you want to wait three hours for it to download.
Why does this always get modded insightful? Some countries have 100megabit internet as the standard. The US is still stuck around 7-10mbit for the majority of us. 7-10mbit is PLENTY to watch TV on.
If you actually get that 7-10mbit... I have 8mbit, can't say I've ever reached it. Sometimes I can't even watch grainy youtube clips without it cutting off every few seconds.
There's a massive difference between theoretical bandwidth and effective bandwidth. If everyone started downloading at 10mbit, the Internet wouldn't cope, especially people on cable. ISP bills would skyrocket to cover the cost.
Well let's assume you have a four-person household, and each person watches an average of 30 hours a week of TV. That's 6240 hours a year. If your cable bill is $720 a year, then that's about 11c per hour, or 6c for a half-hour show. It's effectively a 1700% markup.
Skipping commercials or viewing whenever you want can be done with a Tivo.
The main problem with pay per view is that you have to be dead sure you want to watch something before you watch it. You can't channel surf, you can't browse, you can't tune into the middle of a show to see if it's any good. You're pretty much restricted to watching shows you really like.
I absolutely agree. The HP48GX is an amazing calculator. Reverse Polish Notation (RPN) rocks...you don't need to enter in brackets with complex expressions which probably makes it 20-30% faster than other methods.
Unfortuanately it's completely the opposite of the way you write and think about equations.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't care how non-violent a crime is, if you're a menace to society then you should be removed from society.
That's nothing, I saw one on Thunderbirds in the 60s.
Just because it was the first to exist doesn't mean it was the most important. Doom's multiplayer was pretty much a dud, Quake is the game that kickstarted the genre.
So you're saying that the big rich companies should get away with paying less taxes? Because they employ 200 people? For 200 employees, that works out to paying each one 15k per year. With ninety million dollars, you could probably create some sort of business or facility that employs more people than that, and tell Google to fuck off.
Well, I don't think the ratings are a myth. Or the revenues. Or the attendances. Granted a lot of people watch the Superbowl for the commercials, but a lot of people watch all the other NFL games as well. And those college games with 100k+ people in the stadium...
That's Google's problem. Maybe they shouldn't just allow all and sundry to upload content, then put it up for public download without vetting it. If I had a website and allowed people to upload random pictures, and it ended up full of child porn, you can bet the police would be round my house.
Personally I don't see how a grainy five minutes clip of a TV show is going to damage it. If it's any good it'll make more people watch it, and if it's bad then it'll save people wasting their time watching it. It's bittorrent and newsgroups that is the real problem.
The problem is, that was only funny the first time they did it, not the next fifty. I'm convinced that they only made Family Guy series 4+ because they were told to, rather than because they had any ideas.
Similarly, the Simpsons has outstayed its welcome by around a decade. I don't think Futurama should come back, there's a lot to be said for ending a show when it's still good.
That's just arbitrary backstory, i.e. fluff. You're still a dwarf with a beard and chainmail walking round with a battleaxe.
The mechanics and plot may be different, but it's still the same old cliches.
If you think this is about anything other than another tax, then you're naive. I drive to work on a route with no traffic, but you can bet I'll be charged!
Eventually we'll have a situation where many people can't afford to go to work at all, but then this government is all about punishing people for working and rewarded layabout scroungers.
No, even if everything goes wrong, the ship won't have the energy to get into orbit.
Without advertising, many businesses would lose vital revenue.
CE is offensive as it implies that people born in the last 2007 years are common.
It's more like a card game where the casino has people sit at the table and raise the pot.
You bid $100 for a product and bought it for $95. Some people think that the maximum bid is merely theoretical. If you only want to pay $50 then only bid $50.
You would have no sympathy for the seller if you bought it for the minimum, so why should he have sympathy for you buying it at the maximum?
Treadmills use electricity, they can't create it.
Internet bandwidth will have to massively improve before it becomes a viable replacement for TV, so shows can be viewed instantly with no buffering, ever. Even youtube's grainy videos have to buffer, even when you're on a fast connection, so what chance do PAL-quality videos have?
You also need a reliable way of hooking your TV up to the Internet. And you also need reliable Internet. Sometimes I can't connect to my ISP, especially during busy times. I'd hate to be trying to tune into a big game or something only to find I can't get on. TV doesn't have this problem.
What do you think a youtube clip looks like scaled up to 50"? That's about as high quality as it can get with a decent internet connection without having to 'buffer'.
Unless every time you change channels you want to wait three hours for it to download.
There's a massive difference between theoretical bandwidth and effective bandwidth. If everyone started downloading at 10mbit, the Internet wouldn't cope, especially people on cable. ISP bills would skyrocket to cover the cost.
There isn't enough bandwidth. If it did become big, ISPs would have a heart attack and choke it all like they do with bittorrent.
Well let's assume you have a four-person household, and each person watches an average of 30 hours a week of TV. That's 6240 hours a year. If your cable bill is $720 a year, then that's about 11c per hour, or 6c for a half-hour show. It's effectively a 1700% markup.
Skipping commercials or viewing whenever you want can be done with a Tivo.
The main problem with pay per view is that you have to be dead sure you want to watch something before you watch it. You can't channel surf, you can't browse, you can't tune into the middle of a show to see if it's any good. You're pretty much restricted to watching shows you really like.